Stanford University

[rockymountaindem]

I have a liberal friend who was accepted to Stanford University. He's wondering if it's more conservative or liberal. Can anyone tell me the answer?

[SheilaT]

1. Why in the world didn't

your liberal friend check this out before applying?

It would be far more liberal than conservative. Colleges in general are considered for the most part to be liberal, and Stanford would definitely be one of them. For what it's worth to your friend, Chelsea Clinton went there.

It's a very good, very difficult to get into school. Your friend must be very smart. I'm impressed. (I have a son who's a high school junior and we've begun the college search and Stanford isn't even on our radar, because I know he wouldn't stand a chance of getting in.)

[rogerashton]

2. At a major university such as Stanford,

your friend will find people of all sorts and make a place for him/herself as a liberal -- I'm sure folks with direct connections to Stanford will confirm this.

At the institutional level, though, at least in my field (economics) Stanford is conservative. It is the base of the Hoover Institution and the home base of some very prominent conservatives.

This is ironic, because the founder, Leland Stanford, believed in what I would call cooperative socialism and directed the university to explore cooperative perspectives. Yes, Stanford was a megacapitalist, but he was also a man with a vision of a better future. See

http://dynamics.org/~altenber/PAPERS/BCLSFV/

Unfortunately, it was alum Herbert Hoover, not "robber baron" Stanford, who gave the university its ideological identity.

That's the main reason for my responding, here, despite the fact that I have spent only a few days at Stanford myself. Perhaps if your friend goes to Stanford, she/he might take an interest in the founder and history of the institution.

[Exultant Democracy]

3. It is liberal leaning,

but it has also been the home of many prominent conservative figures.

It is a great school, but it seems to be a bit more stressful then the Ivy league schools (more so with the sciences, not so much with the liberal arts.)

[pippin]

4. Remember Condesleasy

was once provost from 1991 until 1993 at Stanford. "Rice first came to Stanford in 1981 as a fellow in the arms control and disarmament program. She is a tenured professor in the university's political science department and was a Hoover Institution national fellow from 1985 until 1986. "


http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/bios/rice.html

[CO Liberal]

5. If Your Friend Winds Up Going To Stanford....

...ask him to slap Thomas Sowell upside the head for me. The bastard deserves it!!!!!

:-)

[rogerashton]

6. Now, now. Sowell is the best conservative Republican

black economist under 6'2" in height.

The other one is taller.

[CO Liberal]

7. That's Like Saying....

...this pile of garbage smells better than that pile of garbage. They're both piles of garbage.

:-)

[Terran]

8. I think the Hoover Institute is located at SU

A conservative think-tank. Stanford is certainly conservative, to the extent that's possible at a big California university. It's a private school, and a large chunk of the students attending it come, necessarily, from rich families. Tell your friend to go up and across the Bay to Cal if he doesn't want to go a conservative university.

(Of couse, I hate Stanford, because I'm a Cal alumnus.)

[CO Liberal]

9. It's Called the Hoover Institute...

...because it sucks.

:-)